Towards Environmental Entrepreneurship: Restoring the Public Trust Doctrine in New York

The author argues that a reformulated public trust doctrine for New York will permit optimal public benefit from privatization of some green spaces. This public benefit will come in the form of revitalized green spaces, previously forsaken by municipal government. Further, a reformulated public trust doctrine will limit judicial intervention in this area to the courts’ traditional role of striking down transactions in which government overreaches and attempts to transfer trust lands predominantly, not incidentally, for the benefit of private third parties.